The Chicago Jazz Ensemble Performs Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington:
"Black, Brown and Beige" and "The New Orleans Suite"
Echoes of Nations: Dvořák Festival
Symphony Center
8 pm. Friday, June 5, 2009
220 South Michigan Avenue
Tickets for this performance are available through the CSO's box office:
312-294-3000 or online at: www.cso.org

The Chicago Jazz Ensemble and Jon Faddis are proud to be a part of The Chicago Symphony Orchestra's "Echoes of Nations" programming in 2008-2009.  As part of the CSO's culminating "Echoes of Nations: Dvořák Festival," join us for an evening of music by Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington, one of the first American musicians to embody Dvořák's artistic ideal of America creating its own music, with its own ideas, music that evolves from the many voices and cultural influences in this country.  One of Ellington's most ambitious works, "Black, Brown and Beige" premiered in 1943 at Carnegie Hall, with Ellington introducing it "as a parallel to the story of the American Negro"; Faddis describes it as "probably Ellington's most important work."  "The New Orleans Suite" took life first as a recording; Ellington composed it as an homage to New Orleans' musicians, including trumpeter Louis Armstrong, saxophonist Sydney Bechet, bassist Wellman Braud, and vocalist Mahalia Jackson; the characteristic polyphonic rhythms of New Orleans resonate throughout the Suite, along with Ellington's sophisticated harmonies.